NM To Study The Jemez River Watershed

JEMEZ SPRINGS, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico water managers are planning to study the water quality of the Jemez River watershed.

The survey will include the Jemez River from its headwaters in northern New Mexico's Jemez Mountains down to the village of San Ysidro. A tributary of the Rio Grande, the river cuts through Valles Caldera National Preserve and Jemez Pueblo land.

Officials with the state Environment Department say the survey's results will be used to gauge water quality, track improvements and identify any impaired stretches along the river or other trouble spots within the watershed.

The last intensive study in 2005 turned up arsenic, boron, sediment and temperature issues in some parts of the watershed.

At the time, the watershed was among those in New Mexico that were in most urgent need of restoration.